Modern Mining July 2016

COUNTRY FOCUS BOTSWANA

Updating delegates to the BRSC on T3, Hanna said that drilling of the target had started in March this year and had achieved almost immediate success with 52 m at 2,0 % Cu (including 7 m at 4,2 % Cu and 93,66 g/t Ag) having been intersected in the third shal- low RC drill hole. Since then three diamond rigs have been deployed to drill out an initial Phase 1 resource along an 800 m strike length to approximately 200 m depth. The Cu mineralisation – comprising vein- hosted and disseminated chalcopyrite, bornite and chalcocite – occurs within a 50 to 60 m wide sequence of shallow-dipping green silt- stones and marl units known as the ‘target sequence’. There is no outcrop at T3 which is interpreted from magnetic data to form part of a 25 km long ‘structural’ dome within the Mahumo Corridor. Hanna noted that with three diamond rigs on site (a fourth has been added since the confer- ence), MOD was generating up to 200 m of core per day and that a priority was to improve core processing and assay turnaround. In its latest ASX release on T3 (dated 22 June), MOD has reported that 21 diamond drill holes have either been completed or are in progress within the Phase1 resource area. All holes completed to date have intersected significant copper mineralisation within the target sequence. A further 13 holes are planned to establish the initial resource estimate.

levels and conventional mining (using air-legs) for in-ore development and stoping. Using a 1,35 % Cu cut-off grade, average stope width is 2,5 m including dilution. Mining costs including decline, waste development and stoping (and excluding administration and utilities costs and mining equipment) are esti- mated to be in the range of US$45 per tonne of ore. The question of how to further advance Mahumo is now dependent on the results of Stage 2 drilling at the site – to test for exten- sions of the orebody to around 600 m depth – and on how the T3 discovery progresses. Mahumo and T3 are both part of a major plus 20 km wide structural zone known as the Mahumo Structural Corridor and – given their proximity to each other – clearly have the potential to be developed jointly.

Above: Seen on site at T3 are from left: Steve

McGhee (a director of MOD Resources); Terry Grammer of Metal Tiger; Jacques Janse van Rensburg; and Julian Hanna. Right: MOD hosted a visit to its properties in Botswana just after the recent Botswana Resource Sector Conference. The tour party is seen here at T3.

feature T3 strike length extended by another 200 m As this article was being prepared for publication, MOD Resources released further drill results from T3 which extend the resource area another 200 m east to a total 1 km strike length. One of the holes – MO-G-16D – produced a record Cu assay of 0,8 m at 45,4 % Cu and 119 g/t Ag within an intersection of 27,5 m at 3,2 % Cu and 13 g/t Ag from 134,0 m downhole. MO-G-16D includes other high-grade assays between 4,9 % up to 8,8 % Cu. If an arbitrary cut of 15 % Cu is applied to this intersection, says MOD, it becomes 27,5 m at 2,3 % Cu and 13 g/t Ag which still compares very favour- ably with other global copper deposits. 

38  MODERN MINING  July 2016